Hannah Grant, 18, was on her way to Easton College when the crash happened just before 9am on the westbound carriageway of the A47, near the turnoff for the Norfolk Showground.

The horticulture student was left stricken in the road after swerving to avoid a car which had braked suddenly and ended up crashing her black Ford Fiesta Zetec into the central reservation.

Miss Grant, from Garboldisham, near Diss, said: “It could have been a lot worse than it was. Somebody just slammed their brakes on and went from 70mph down to 40mph, so quickly I swerved around them, the car snaked around and I ended up crashing into the barriers.

“I sat there for about a minute as I didn’t want to move my head because I could feel some pain in my neck and didn’t want to do myself any damage.”

Fire crews from Carrow, Earlham and Sprowston rushed to the scene and cut Miss Grant free from her car using hydraulic rescue equipment.

Traffic soon began to back up and the crash caused delays on the southern bypass until police fully re-opened the road at 10.20am.

Miss Grant praised the emergency services for how well she was treated and also thanked two other people who stopped to help her.

She continued: “There was an off-duty paramedic, or someone like that, who stopped and climbed in the back of my car to hold my head still, and there was also a teacher from City College who managed to crack open the passenger-side door and sat next to me calming me down.”

Miss Grant said the fire service arrived within 15 minutes but the ambulance couldn’t get to them for almost 30 minutes, adding: “The fire crew were excellent, they always talked me through what was happening, which was great because having the roof cut off your car is not the most pleasant of experiences.

“But they were all really good, the paramedics were really joky and calmed me down.”

Miss Grant has fortunately been left uninjured but her 2008 registration car has now been written off, just two months after she bought it.

Have you recently survived a scary accident? Contact reporter David Freezer on 01603 772418 or david.freezer@archant.co.uk